Dieudonné Thiébault (1733 - 1807, †Versailles) was a French scholar who in 1765 was appointed Professor of French Grammar at the Royal Court of Prussia, and tasked to edit the French writings of King Frederick II (the Great). In order to maintain the purity of his mother tongue, he was made to promise never to learn German. Thiébault ultimately remained in Prussia for twenty years and, after his 1784 return to Paris, in 1804 he published his memoirs of that stay, during which he had made the acquaintance of a large number of foreign and domestic noblemen, diplomats, and members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences, and had -- more particularly -- also been in close contact with Frederick II himself. Thiébault's memoirs paint a vivid portraitDieudonné Thiébault (1733 - 1807, †Versailles) was a French scholar who in 1765 was appointed Professor of French Grammar at the Royal Court of Prussia, and tasked to edit the French writings of King Frederick II (the Great). In order to maintain the purity of his mother tongue, he was made to promise never to learn German. Thiébault ultimately remained in Prussia for twenty years and, after his 1784 return to Paris, in 1804 he published his memoirs of that stay, during which he had made the acquaintance of a large number of foreign and domestic noblemen, diplomats, and members of the Prussian Academy of Sciences, and had -- more particularly -- also been in close contact with Frederick II himself. Thiébault's memoirs paint a vivid portrait of the Prussian court, society and state, containing a scholarly analysis of the Prussian system of administration and government as much as a man of literature's sensitive and richly varied depiction of life at Frederick II's court....more